Manslaughter charge in mother’s death

A Spokane man has been charged with manslaughter after investigators say he neglected his elderly mother while in a drunken stupor last year.

Glen Douglas Rosier, 67, left jail on $10,000 bond this weekend after his arrest on two felony charges for the death of his mother, Verna Rosier, 89.

Verna Rosier, 89, died at a hospital in February 2011 after family friend found her badly neglected inside his home at 1300 W. Woodside Place, where he’d cared for his ailing mother for 11 years, according to court documents.

The friend said Glen looked sick and made comments about wanting to hurt himself.

She found his mother, who had heart disease, lying on her bedroom floor in urine-soaked clothes with dried blood on her body and bruises on her head.

“It’s just really sad,” Spokane County Deputy Prosecutor Patrick Johnson said Monday. “He just went off the deep end, and his mom died.”

A sheriff’s deputy tried to interview Verna Rosier at the hospital but said she was unable to answer questions coherently. She died four days later.

Another sheriff’s deputy contacted Glen Rosier at the home, which he described as extremely cluttered, and said he was drunk and wearing only underwear and a tank top. Rosier told the deputy his mother often fell to the floor and that he sometimes tried to get her back in bed but often just covered her with a blanket and tried to make her as comfortable as possible, court documents allege.

He was taken into protective custody to undergo a mental evaluation.

Glen Rosier’s sister told investigators she and other family members tried to check on her mother several times but were denied access to the home by Glen.

Rosier is charged with second-degree manslaughter, with second-degree criminal mistreatment filed as an alternative charge. Johnson said the case went through several reviews by prosecutors before a charging decision was made.

Several members of Rosier’s family attended his court appearance and requested he be ordered not to contact them, which Superior Court Judge Annette Plese granted.

Rosier declined to speak with reporters.

Verna Rosier was born in Canada and moved to the U.S. in 1938, according to her obituary. Her obituary said she “entered the Irish universe” after her death and was “greeted by the entire clan waving four-leaf clovers and toasting a little Irish whiskey.”